By JOSEPH WILSON and TERESA MEDRANO
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Flash floods in eastern Spain swept away cars, turned village streets into rivers, disrupted rail lines and highways and killed at least 72 people in the worst natural disaster to hit the European nation in recent memory.
Rainstorms that started Tuesday and continued Wednesday caused flooding in a wide swath of southern and eastern Spain, stretching from Malaga to Valencia. Muddy torrents tumbled vehicles down streets at high speeds, while pieces of wood swirled in the water alongside household items. Police and rescue services used helicopters to lift people from their homes and rubber boats to reach drivers stranded on the roofs of cars.
Emergency services in the eastern region of Valencia confirmed a death toll of 70 people on Wednesday. Another two casualties were reported in the neighboring Castilla La Mancha region.
“Yesterday was the worst day of my life,” Ricardo Gabaldón, the mayor of Utiel, a town in Valencia, told national broadcaster RTVE on Wednesday. He said six residents of his town had perished and several more were unaccounted for.
“We were trapped like rats. Cars and trash containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to 3 meters (9.8 feet),” he said.
Searchers worked to find survivors and victims, with countless numbers still missing. Spain’s government said it would declare three days of mourning starting Thursday for those killed in the devastating flash floods.
“For those who are looking for their loved ones, all of Spain feels your pain,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised address. “Our priority is to help you. We are putting all the resources necessary so that we can recover from this tragedy.”
Over 1,600 soldiers from Spain’s emergency response units were deployed to the devastated areas, and rescue personnel were traveling to affected areas from across the country. Spain’s central government set up a crisis committee to help coordinate rescue efforts.
The elderly were the most vulnerable. RTVE broadcast footage of seniors in chairs and wheelchairs with waters rising over their knees at a nursing home, and a military unit rescuing an elderly couple from the top story of their house in the bucket of a bulldozer.
Television reports showed videos shot by panicked residents documenting waters flooding the ground floors of apartment buildings, streams bursting their banks and bridges giving way. People gasped as they pointed to what they feared could be bodies bobbing in the swift brown flood.
Spain’s national weather service called the rainfall “extraordinary” in parts of Valencia.
Spain has experienced similar autumn storms in recent years. Nothing, however, compared to the devastation over the last two days, which recalls floods in Germany and Belgium in 2021 in which 230 people were killed.
The death toll will likely rise with other regions yet to report victims and search efforts continuing in areas with difficult access.
“We are facing a very difficult situation,” minister of territory policies Ángel Víctor Torres said. “The fact that we can’t give a number of the missing persons indicates the magnitude of the tragedy.”
In the village of Letur in the neighboring Castilla La Mancha region, Mayor Sergio Marín Sánchez said five people were missing.
Spain is still recovering from a severe drought and has registered record high temperatures in recent years. Scientists say increased episodes of extreme weather are likely linked to climate change. The prolonged drought has also made it more difficult for the land to absorb high volumes of water.
The storms unleashed a freak hailstorm that punched holes in car windows and greenhouses as well as a rarely seen tornado.
Transport was also affected. A high-speed train with nearly 300 people on board derailed near Malaga, although rail authorities said no one was hurt. High-speed train service between Valencia city and Madrid was interrupted, as were commuter lines. Some 1,500 people stayed overnight in Valencia’s airport before flights.
Valencian regional President Carlos Mazón urged people to stay at home, with travel by road already difficult due to fallen trees and wrecked vehicles. Rescue efforts were hampered, Mazón, said, by downed power lines that left areas without electricity, while phone lines were jammed with calls. He said the regional emergency service had attended some 30,000 calls.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels that the EU will assist by using its Copernicus geo-monitoring satellite system “to help coordinate the rescue teams.”
She said the bloc can activate a civil protection mechanism offering the combined assistance of the other 26 member countries if Spain needs help.
“Europe is ready to help,” Von der Leyen said.
As the waters fell, thick layers of mud mixed with refuse made streets unrecognizable.
“The neighborhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally smashed up,” Christian Viena, a bar owner in the Valencian village of Barrio de la Torre, said by phone. “Everything is a total wreck, everything is ready to be thrown away. The mud is almost 30 centimeters (11 inches) deep.”
Outside Viena’s bar, people were venturing out to see what they could salvage. Cars were piled up and the streets were filled with clumps of water-logged branches.
Relatives of the missing filled social media and local television and radio outlets with appeals to find their loved ones.
Leonardo Enrique told RTVE that his family had been searching for hours for his son, Leonardo Enrique Rivera, 40, who was driving a delivery van when it began to rain. His son had sent a message saying his van was flooding and that he had been hit by another vehicle when he was near Ribarroja, an industrial town which is one of the worst affected, Enrique said.
Soccer games for Valencia and neighboring club Levante were postponed.
Located south of Barcelona down the Mediterranean coast, Valencia is a tourist destination known for its beaches, citrus orchards, and as the home of Spain’s paella rice dish.
Like some other areas of Spain, Valencia has gorges and small riverbeds that spend much of the year completely dry but quickly fill with water when it rains. Many of them pass through populated areas.
The rain had subsided in Valencia by late Wednesday morning as the storm headed north, prompting authorities in the Barcelona region to issue weather alerts.
Medrano reported from Madrid. Associated Press journalist Lorne Cook in Brussels contributed.
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